This document provides an overview of subjective tests, which require students to write out original answers in response to questions. It focuses on short answer questions and essay tests. Short answer questions are open-ended questions that require brief responses to assess basic knowledge. Essay tests allow for longer written responses to assess higher-level thinking. Both have advantages like measuring complex learning, but also disadvantages like subjectivity and difficulty in scoring responses. The document provides guidance on constructing effective short answer questions and essay prompts to reduce subjectivity.

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Educational Measurement and Evaluation
Subjective Test
Subjective test require studentsto write present an original answer. Include short answer
essay,extended-responseessay, problem solving, and performance tasks. subjective tests
are evaluated based on the judgment or opinion of the examiner. Subjective tests are
more challenging and expensive to prepare, administer and evaluate correctly, but they
can bemore valid. Testsof this natureareoften designed in a manner in which the student
is presented with a number of questions or writing prompts for which he/she will
demonstrate mastery of the learning objective in his/her response to the question. When
composing prompts as test questions, it is crucial that you phrase the prompt clearly and
precisely.
Subjective test include the following items:
 Short answer
 Essays
Short answer
Short-answer questions are open-ended questions that require students to create an
answer. They are commonly used in examinations to assess the basic knowledge and
understanding (low cognitive levels) of a topic before more in-depth assessment
questions are asked on the topic.
Structure of Short Answer Questions
Short Answer Questions do not have a common structure. Questions may require
answers such as complete the sentence, supply the missing word, short descriptive or
qualitative answers, diagrams with explanations etc. The answer is usually short, from
one word to a few lines. Often students may answer in bullet form.
Examples
1. MHz measures the _________________ of the computer.
2. List the different types of test?
3. State third law of motion?

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Advantages of Short Answer Questions
 Short Answer Questions are relatively fast to mark and can be marked by different
assessors, as long as the questions are set in such a way that all alternative answers can
be considered by the assessors.
 Short Answer Questions are also relatively easy to set compared to many assessment
methods.
 Short Answer Questions can be used as part of a formative and summative assessment,
as the structure of short answer questions are very similar to examination questions,
students are more familiar with the practice and feel less anxious.
 Unlike MCQs, there is no guessing on answers, students must supply an answer.
Disadvantages of Short Answer Questions
 Short Answer Questions (SAQ) are only suitable for questions that can be answered with
short responses. It is very important that the assessor is very clear on the type of answers
expected when setting the questions, because SAQ is an open-ended questions, students
are free to answer any way they choose, short-answer questions can lead to difficulties in
grading if the question is not worded carefully.
 Short Answer Questions are typically used for assessing knowledge only, students may
often memorize Short Answer Questions with rote learning. If assessors wish to use Short
Answer Questions to assess deeper learning, careful attention (and many practices) on
appropriate questions are required.
 Accuracy of assessment may be influenced by handwriting/spelling skills
 There can be time management issues when answering Short Answer Questions
How to design a good Short Answer Question?
 Design short answer items which are appropriate assessment of the learning
objective
 Make sure the content of the short answer question measures knowledge
appropriate to the desired learning goal
 Express the questions with clear wordings and language which are appropriate to
the student population
 Ensure there is only one clearly correct answer in each question
 Ensure that the item clearly specifies how the question should be answered (e.g.
Student should answer it briefly and concisely using a single word or short phrase?
Is the question given a specific number of blanks for students to answer?)
 Consider whether the positioning of the item blank promote efficient scoring
 Write the instructions clearly so as tospecify the desired knowledge and specificity
of response
 Set the questions explicitly and precisely.

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 Direct questions are better than those which require completing the sentences.
 For numerical answers,let the studentsknow if they will receivemarksfor showing
partial work (process based) or only the results (product based), also indicated the
importance of the units.
 Let the students know what your marking style is like, is bullet point format
acceptable, or does it have to be an essay format?
 Prepare a structured marking sheet; allocate marks or part-marks for acceptable
answer(s).
 Be prepared to accept other equally acceptable answers, some of which you may
not have predicted.
Concept of Essay Test
The word essay has been derived from a French word ‘essayer’ which means ‘totry’ or
‘to attempt’.
Definition:
“Essay test is a test that requires the student to structure a rather long written response
up to several paragraphs.”
William weirsama
Essay test is a type of test that usually allows greater freedom of response to questions
and requires more writing. It is a free answer kind of test. In this case the examinees or
the students have the responsibility of thinking out the answers to the questions
asked. They have the freedom to express or state the answers in their own words. It is
used by teachers to measure achievement, performance etc from classroom instruction.
The answers to such questions which the learners are confronted differ in quality and
degree of correctness.
Characteristic ofEssay Test
These are:
 `Students answer small number of questions. Because of time limits, It is not
always possible that all the topics be covered by the tests.
 The script are written in the students own style, words and usually in his
own handwriting.
 The students are considerably free to organize their own answers. This implies
that answers with varying degrees of accuracy and completeness.

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Types of Essay Questions
C.C. Weidman (1933, 1941) identified ten types of essay question which he arranged in
order from simple to complex. These questions begin with:
1. what, who, when, which, and where
2. list
3. outline
4. describe
5. contrast
6. compare
7. discuss
8. develop
9. summarize
10.evaluate
Types of Essay test
Essay questions are classified into two types
I. Restricted response
II. Extended response
Extended Response or Free Response
These are responses to essay questions in which the examinee is only restricted by time
as no bound is placed as regards the in-depth, breadth and the organization of the
response. In response to such a question the examinee demonstrates his ability to select
and recall the facts which he thinks are appropriate, organize and present his ideas in a
logical and coherent form. This freedom to decide which facts thethinks is most pertinent
to select his own method of organization and to write as much as seems necessary for a
comprehensive answer tends to reveal the ability to evaluate ideas, relate them,
coherently and to expressthem briefly. In addition, they exposethe individual differences
in attitudes, values and creative ability.

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This type of essay item is mostly useful in measuring learning outcomes at the higher
cognitive levels of educational objectives such as analysis, synthesisand evaluation levels.
Although, the extendedresponse essay typeare also limited by two weaknesses which are:
 They are insufficient for measuring knowledge of factual materials because they
call for extensive details in selected content area at a time.
 Scoring such responses is usually difficult and unreliable since the examinees
have free will in the array of factual information of varying degree of correctness,
coherence and expression. These limitations are minimized in the Restricted
Response Type.
Examples of Free ResponseorExtended response questions
 Describe the sampling technique used in research studies.
 Explain the various ways of preventing accident in a school workshop or
laboratory.
 What are the implications of fuel price hike in our economy?
 Why should the classroom teacher state his instructional objectives to cover
the three domains of educational objectives.
RestrictedResponse
In this type, the questions are so structured that the students are limited, the scope of the
response is defined and restricted. The answers given are to some extent controlled. In
this type the examinee is limited to the nature, length or organization of response to be
made. The items are directional questions and are aimed at the desired responses. This
limits the examinee freedom to select, recall, and synthesize all that he knows and to
present them logically as he may wish. This type of essay item is most useful in measuring
learning outcomes at the lower cognitive levels of educational objectives, that is
knowledge, comprehension and application levels.
Therestrictednature of theexpectedresponse in this typeof items makesit more efficient
for measuring knowledge of factual material. It reduces to a reasonable extent the
difficulty of scoring and encourages more reliability in scoring. However, the restriction

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makes it less effective as a measure of ability to select, organize and integrate ideas and
present them in an original and coherent form which is one of the major advantages of
essay test.
Examples of RestrictedResponse Essay Questions
 Give three advantages and two disadvantages of essay tests.
 State four uses of tests in education.
 Describe four sources of energy.
Constructing the Essay Questions
An essay test is a useful measurement instrument only tothe extent that it is constructed,
administered and scored to ensure a high level of objectivity. For this reason, essay test
items should consist of items that will ensure the same understanding and elicit only the
skill or ability one is interested in measuring from every examinee.
The following points are suggested as guide for construction of good essay
test items:
 Essay questions are to be used only when it’s desirable and very adequate for
measuring the learning outcomes for full realization of learner’s achievement. In
other words, they are to be used for questions that call for complex learning
outcomes that be appropriate to the organization, integration and expression of
ideas which would not have been possible without the use of essay test items.
 Essay questions should be designed to elicit only the skill which the item was
intended to measure. This can be achieved by expressing clearly and precisely the
question in line with clearly defined instructional objective. In addition, an action
verb like compare, contrast, illustrates, differentiates, criticized and so on could be
used to give the test items more focus.
 Phrase each question toclearly indicate the examinees task. An essay question has
to be precise . Ensure that the examinee’s task is clearly indicated by delimiting
the area covered by the item, using descriptive words to give specific direction
towards the desired response. Indicate the score allotted to the test. This
suggestion easily lend itself to restricted response type and care should be taken

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not to narrow the questions when constructing theextendedresponse typein order
not to reduce its effectiveness as a measuring of the ability to select, organize and
integrate ideas.
 Adapt the length and complexity of the answer to the examinees’’ level of maturity.
 Indication of approximate time limit for each question. It is necessary to indicate
time allotted to each question to enable the examinee to pace their writing on each
question and to allay any anxiety that might arise.
 Avoid the use of optional questions because, optional questions might influence
the validity of test results
 It is also not easy to construct essay questions of the same difficulty level. Hence,
making valid comparisons of performance among them especially for norm
reference setting will not be possible.
When to use Essay Questions
 Use essay questions in the measurement of complex achievement when its distinctive
feature of freedom of response is required. Learners are free to select, relate and present
ideas in their own words. This freedom enhances the valueof essay questions as a measure
of complex achievement but it leads to scoring difficulties that make them insufficient as
measure of factual knowledge.
 Essay questions should also be used to measure those learning outcomes that cannot be
measured by objective test items. The specific features of essay questions can be utilized
most fully when their shortcomings are offset by the need for such measurement.
 Essay questions should be used when learning outcomes concerned with the abilities to
select, organize, integrate, relate, and evaluate ideas require the freedom of response and
the originality provided by essay questions .More so, when these outcomes are of such
great educational significance that the expenditure of energy in the difficulty and time-
consuming task of evaluating the answers can be easily justified.
Advantages of Essay test
The essay test has got some advantages in the area of measurement and evaluation. Some
of these advantages are:-

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 The essay test permits a freedom of response, which in turn
allows the students to prevent their ideas as detailed as they choose so as to
show how deep knowledge they have in the subject area covered by the question.
 Thefree response allows the student toexpresshimself in his own words making use
of his proficiency in the language being used to his advantage.
 Essay tests promotes the development of problem – solving skills. This is because
the student has to think out the answer himself and put it down in organized form.
 It helps students to improve their writing skills such as writing speed, eligibility etc
because they write in their handwriting.
 It encourages creativity by allowing their own unique way. It discourages guess-
work and encourages good study habits in students.
 It measures complex learning outcomes that cannot be measured by other means.
For example, it has the ability to measure learner’s communication skills
 It measures the learner’sability to produce an answer, synthesize and organize ideas
and present them readably in a logical and coherent form.
 It also enables the measurement of organizational and different thinking skills by
laying emphasis on the integration and application of thinking and problem solving
skills, creativity and originality.
 It is very applicable for measuring learning outcomes at the higher levels of
educational objectives such as application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of
levels of the cognitive domain.
 It is easy and economical to administer. It can be easily and conveniently written on
the chalkboard because of the few items involved. This saves materials and time for
production.
 Essay item is easy to construct and does not take much time
 It can be used to measure in-depth knowledge especially in a restricted subject
matter area.
 It does not encourage guessing and cheating during testing.

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Disadvantages of the Essay test
Although the advantages already listed for essay test, it does not satisfy some important
qualities of a good measuring instrument.
They include that:
 They also have poor psychometric quality or measurement qualities although
popular among classroom teachers especially those who are deficient in the skill
required for item construction.
 It is inadequate in sampling subject matter content and course objectives since it
provides limited sampling. The provision of few questions results in the invalid
and narrow coverage of subject matter and instructional objectives.
 Fewness of the number of questions often asked encourages permutation of some
content areas and creaming of ideal responses to suspected questions. In this
regard, essay questions discourage the development of good study habit.
 In addition to the invalidity of the measurement, evaluating the answers to
carelessly developed questions tends to be confusing and time consuming task.
This results in poor reliability in scoring.
 Studies have shown that answers to essay questions are scored differently by
different teachers and that even same teachers score the answers differently at
different times.
 Sometimes an essay question implies many skills other than that which the item
was intended to measure. Theexaminee therefore perceivesand reactsto thesame
questions differently. The differences in the perception of the questions encourage
bluffing and hides differences in the knowledge of basic factual material and the
learners ability to use and organize such facts.
 The essay test item does not readily lend itself to empirical study of item qualities
like difficulty and discrimination based on which improvements on the item could
be made.
 Scoring is not reliable because different examiners can grade the score answer
differently. In fact, the same examiner can grade the same question differently at
different times.

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 Grading of essay tests is time-consuming.
 Essay questions do not cover the course content and the objectives as
comprehensively as possible.
 Good command of language places individual students at an
advantage while poor command places some students at a disadvantage.
How To Make Essay Test Less Subjective
As subjectivity is a major limitation of the essay tests. It can be reduce to the barest
minimum after following these tips.
 Avoid open-ended questions.
 Let the students’ answer the same questions. Avoid options/choices.
 Use students’ numbers instead of their names, to conceal their identity.
 Score all the answers to each question for all students at a time.
 Do not allow score on one question to influence you while marking the next.
Always rearrange the papers before you mark.
 Do not allow your feelings or emotions to influence your marking.
 Avoid distractions when marking
Scoring Essay Test
Essay test scoring calls for higher degrees of competence, and ordinarily takes
considerably more time, than the scoring of objective tests. In addition to this, essay test
scoring presents two special problems. The first is that of providing a basis for judgment
that is sufficiently definite, and of sufficiently general validity, to give the scores assigned
by a particular reader some objective meaning. To be useful, his scores should not
represent purely subjective opinions and personal biases that equally competent readers
might or might not share. The second problem is that of discounting irrelevant factors,
such as quality of handwriting, verbal fluency, or gamesmanship, in appealing to the
scorer’s interests and biases. The reader’s scores should reflect unbiased estimates of the
essential achievements of the examinee.

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One means of improving objectivity and relevancy in scoring essay tests is to prepare an
ideal answer toeach essay question and tobase thescoring on relations betweenexaminee
answers and the ideal answer. Another is to defer assignment of scores until the examinee
answers have been sorted and resorted intothree tonine sets at different levels of quality.
Scoring the test question by question through the entire set of papers, rather than paper
by paper (marking all questions on one paper before considering the next) improves the
accuracy of scoring. If several scorers will be marking the same questions in a set of
papers, it is usually helpful to plan a training and practice session in which the scorers
mark the same papers, compare their marks and strive to reach a common basis for
marking.
The construction and scoring of essay questions are interrelated processes that require
attention if a valid and reliable measureof achievement is to be obtained. In the essay test
the examiner is an active part of the measurement instrument. Therefore, the viabilities
within and between examiners affect the resulting score of examinee. This variability is a
source of error, which affects the reliability of essay test if not adequately controlled.
Hence, for the essay test result to serve useful purpose as valid measurement instrument
conscious effort is made to score the test objectively by using appropriate methods to
minimize the effort of pe0rsonal biases and idiosyncrasies on the resulting scores; and
applying standards to ensure that only relevant factors indicated in the course objectives.
The following are procedures for scoring essay questions objectively to enhance
reliability.
 Prepare the marking scheme or ideal answer or outline of expected answer
immediately after constructing the test items and indicate how marks are to be
awarded for each section of the expected response.
 Use the scoring method that is most appropriate for the test item. That is, use
either the analytic or global method as appropriate to the requirements of the test
item.
 Decide how to handle factors that are irrelevant to the learning outcomes being
measured. These factors may include legibility of handwriting, spelling, sentence
structure, punctuation and neatness. These factors should be controlled when

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judging the content of the answers. Also decide in advance how to handle the
inclusion of irrelevant materials (uncalled for responses).
 Score only one item in all the scripts at a time. This helps to control the “halo” effect
in scoring.
 Evaluate the answers to responses anonymously without knowledge of the
examinee whose script you are scoring. This helps in controlling bias in scoring the
essay questions.
 Evaluate the marking scheme (scoring key) before actual scoring by scoring a
random sample of examinees actual responses. This provides a general idea of the
quality of the response to be expected and might call for a revision of the scoring
key before commencing actual scoring.
 Make comments during the scoring of each essay item. These comments act as
feedback to examinees and a source of remediation to both examinees and
examiners.
 Obtain twoor more independent ratings if important decisions are to be based on
the results. The result of the different scorers should be compared and rating
moderated to reflect the discrepancies for more reliable results.

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References
Doher, G. 1991. Do teachers' comments on students' papers help? College Teaching 39:48-54.
Everett, E. 1994. Do the write thing. The Science Teacher 61(7): 35-7.
Mayer, R. E. 1975. Information processing variables in learning to solve problems. Review of
Educational Research 45:525-41.
Moore, R 1992. Writing about biology: How should we mark students' essays? Bioscene: Journal
of College Biology Teaching. 18(3): 3-9.
Perkins, D. 1993. Teaching for understanding. American Educator 17(3): 8 and 28-35.
Shavelson, R J. and R Stern. 1981. Research on teachers' pedagogical thoughts, judgments,
decisions, and behavior. Review of Educational Research 51:455-98.
Steele, C. W. 1992. Critique; don't bash. Writing and Learning 3(1): 5 6.
Craig W. Steele is an associate professor in the Department of Biology and Health Services at
Edinboro University in Edinboro, Pennsylvania.
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~slm/AdjCI/Teaching/Essays.html